a reflective and futile guide to life as an expat in england. formerly italy. formerly formerly korea.
but who really gives a shit anyway. are you still reading this? hello?

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

vive la femme

french for long live the woman and a phrase that represents an occasion impacting enough on my life to have it tattooed across my wrists.

the story starts roughly ten years after the Rwandan Genocide, in the back of a taxi cab in South Korea. I'm with my new friend Laine, an expert of seemingly all life's things- from how to find the best french croissant in all of Seoul, to Kim Jong Il's passion for Hennessy. but it was her narrative of rape used as a weapon of war during the genocide that left me most captivated.

I'm not sure what compels people to be emotionally impacted by certain things and not others. but for me, this was and continues to be an issue that fascinates me, that I care deeply about, and that I wish more people were privy to.

sometimes the world has a funny way of conspiring in our favor.

Last summer I was out with friends Giulia and Meghan in West Hollywood when we met Nick. Early in our conversation we were discussing documentaries, and I mentioned that I wished someone would make a film about the south sudan conflict. As a matter of ridiculously stupid coincidence, he and his partner Michele had just returned from Africa where they had been doing exactly that. Nick is also a stupidly fun human and went to Harvard and all that kind of stuff. This month The Uncondemned will make its debut in Kigali.

If you can take three minutes, watch their trailer, maybe you'll find it's something that becomes important to you too. And if you like it and feel like sparing a buck, consider a donation to their cause on kickstarter. They've got one more week of fundraising before the film's premiere mid month. Oh, and let me know if you do so I can purchase the equivalent for you in beers the next time our paths cross.